Sunspots 769

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to

someone else:

Christianity: Christianity Today discusses polyamory among professing Christians.


Christianity Today also has a good article on why the Old Testament continues to be important.

CT has also posted information on 20 African-American heroes and heroines of faith.

Computing: (and Politics) Gizmodo reports that Twitter has taken action against some pro-Bloomberg accounts, for publishing pro-Bloomberg spam.
  Humor: (and Computing) A Gizmodo writer has found women's pants with pockets large enough to hold a smartphone.


Politics: (And Christianity) Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, has been an outspoken critic of President Trump. Authorities in the church are apparently going to study the question of whether Moore's positions have hurt the denomination financially, according to Relevant. In a later post, Relevant reports that the ERLC board has instructed Moore not to comply with such an inquiry, at least not at present.

Joel Edmund Anderson asks us to not be hyper-partisan, in any direction.

Science: The Scientist reports on recent discoveries in human anatomy. You would think that we already knew all there is to know about our structure. Not so. For example, there's a bone that I don't think you have heard of.

The Scientist also reports on the use of artificial intelligence to discover new antibiotics.

NPR reports on the terrible locust plague in Africa.

NPR, and other outlets, report that Katherine Johnson, one of the African-American mathematicians who worked on the manned space program, has died. (The movie, Hidden Figures, was based on the critical work of these women.)

Sports: Sabrina Ionescu, who plays basketball for Oregon, had quite a day on February 24th. She was one of the speakers at the memorial service for Kobe Bryant, and also became the only college basketball player, male or female, to score 2000+ career points, give out 1000+ assists, and collect 1000+ rebounds. She got the qualifying rebound on the 24th, against Stanford.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 717

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else: 

Christianity: USA Today reports on what Southern Baptist leaders want done to stop their sexual abuse crisis.

Threads from Henry's Web has a solid post on how Christians should respond to the Pledge of Allegiance, and related matters.

Christianity Today on how parents should deal with their children's doubts.


Computing: Gizmodo reports that Facebook employees who are supposed to weed out conspiracy theories, violent posts, and the like, are underpaid, and that their jobs affect their mental health adversely. They apparently joke about committing suicide and engage in sexual activity on breaks, as ways of coping.

Education: NPR reports on the large discrepancy between funding of mostly white school districts vs. mostly non-white ones, and explains the reasons for this.

Environment: National Geographic reports that a mammalian species has gone extinct, because of climate change.

Food: A Relevant article says that leftover pizza may make a better breakfast, nutrition-wise, than some cereals. Hmmm.

(And politics) Gizmodo reports that a "soda tax" seems to have worked, in Berkeley, CA. That is, taxing carbonated and sweetened drinks did change people's behavior.

Health: Scientific American reports that listing all the side effects of a drug may actually make it more desirable to listeners, viewers or readers.

WalletHub has studied us, and ranks the most sinful to least sinful states. The methodology is given, too. Nevada is the most sinful. It was the highest state in Greed, 3rd highest in Jealousy, and 6th highest in Lust. Vermont was the least sinful state.

NPR reports that growing up with access to green areas contributes to a healthier life.

Gizmodo reports that the death rate from drug overdoses is considerably higher in the US than in other nations.

Politics: Surprise (or not)! The Trump administration is apparently going to appoint a climate-change denier (who is not trained in climate science) to chair a committee to study global climate change, according to Earther.

Catherine Rampell on President Tariff Man, er, Trump.


Science: NPR reports that an Italian lab is experimenting with a gene drive system that might stamp out African mosquitoes. For more on gene drives, see here.

Gizmodo reports that it is easy to fool people with a disguise.

Gizmodo also reports on the re-discovery of a giant bee, from Indonesia.

NPR reports on locusts, as in plagues of locusts. It turns out that they are common grasshoppers that change appearance and behavior, under stress.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain.
Thanks for looking!